Chris Calabia | Head of CBDC PRograms

Inspired by his career in global financial regulatory policy, Chris Calabia is excited to work with MIT’s renown computer scientists, engineers, and students to help build a digital economy that works for all. He joins the MIT Digital Currency Initiative having served at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for over two decades, where he was a Senior Vice President, and at the Dubai Financial Services Authority, where he was CEO. Between those roles, he was the Senior Advisor for Supervisory & Regulatory Policy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, supporting policy and technology innovations to improve financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. 

Earlier in his career, Chris was seconded to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision at the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland and separately to the International Monetary Fund to co-lead its 2016 evaluation of the United Kingdom’s post-crisis approach to banking supervision. He is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist and a graduate of the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University (MALD) and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia (BA). Chris founded FC Calabia Solutions LLC to promote a financial system that is sustainable, resilient, and inclusive.